Our project targets to inform and impact spectrum policy and the FCC via demonstration of novel usage cases of emerging and diverse spectral bands. This project will impact future standards by demonstrating what is feasible in new and diverse bands. This project will impact industry through demonstration of results coupled with the team’s extensive collaborative industry network. Finally, the project includes an inter-disciplinary education plan and the team includes multiple Ph.D. students from under-represented groups.
Impact on society beyond science and technology:
- Our project’s research goals will inject additional bandwidth into key TFA geographical zones that can then be distributed to the community through conventional wireless technologies. Thus, students will be able to continue their education at home after school and parents will better be able to support their children and participate in the digital world that most of us take for granted. This could become a model for narrowing the educational opportunity gap in similar communities.
- The project outcomes will provide a template for other communities in the US and globally.
- The PIs are working closely with the schools to provide devices, connectivity and training for the parents of students who want to be more involved in the education of their children. Thus, the outcomes of this project have a broad socioeconomic impact.
Impact on knowledge and technique:
- The project yielded a new foundation for passive network analytics and performance evaluation solely via data collected at the access point, and without requiring client cooperation, client-installed software, or special purpose sniffers. The analytics predict achievable TCP throughput which is colloquially called a “speed test.” Hence, we term our approach “Virtual speed test” as we can passively predict the outcome of a speed test for any network client. In this way, virtual speed test provides a continuously adapting dashboard of the achievable throughput of all clients, based on analysis of traffic traversing the access point.
- To the best of our knowledge, our research presents the first PIN diode-based THz pulse radiator implemented in a silicon-based process.
- Over the past year, we designed, implemented and experimentally evaluated of an efficient beam steering protocol for downlink multi-user MIMO transmission in 60 GHz WLANs. A key impact of the project.
- Our research presents the first wirelessly synchronized multichip array (WSMA) in 65-nm CMOS. Our research sets the
foundation for increasing the array aperture through wireless injection locking, extending traditional array systems into the
high-resolution, narrow-beamwidth regime. - A key activity was the design and the experimental evaluation of user and beam selection mechanisms that can successfully enable multi-user downlink transmission given the propagation characteristics of millimeter-wave spectrum.
- Chip demonstration of Broadband 0.03-1.1 THz signal generation and radiation.
Impact on technology transfer:
- This project targets to inform and impact spectrum policy and the FCC via demonstration of novel usage cases of emerging and diverse spectral bands.
- TFA’s, (Technology For All) “PowerUp” Initiative is providing free Internet access to the Milby High School students surrounding its neighborhood through the TFA-Wireless project with Rice University, our urban TFA testbed serving the underserved community.
Impact on information resources that form infrastructure:
- All data sets and data collection tools of our research will be made publicly available as a resource for the research community. The data sets are unique in that they provide unprecedented access to all system components from the end-user to the network.
Impact on the development of human resources:
- Our educational activities have included graduate and undergraduate student training, and conference, industry, and workshop presentations.
- In 2018-2019, the project provided research opportunities for graduate students from a variety of disciplines. Our research team includes women and minority students.
- During the summer of 2018, Carlos Arroyo, Isabella Garza, Patrick Han, Liewn Jiang, Tianrun Ke, George Shi and Tiger Yang, undergraduate students at Rice University worked closely with the PI’s and graduate students in the Rice Networks Lab designing, developing and testing a wireless THz backhaul related testbed. Over the air experimentation and measurements using the testbed to show the potential of THz wireless backhaul links in enhancing network performance will
be performed. - The EARS Project provided data for P. Nayak. Performance Evaluation of MU-MIMO WLANs under the impact of traffic dynamics, Masters degree research. (2016)
- The EARS Project provided data for J. Chen. Pseudo Lateration: Millimeter-Wave Localization Using a Single Infrastructure Anchor, Masters degree research. (2016)
- The EARS Project provided data for Y. Ghasempour. Scaling 60 GHz WLANS: Creating and Identifying opportunities for Multi-User Transmission, Masters degree research. (2016)
- The EARS Project provided data for B. Jamali. Sub-picosecond Wireless Synchronization and Instantaneous Frequency Detection for Agile RF/mm-Wave Receiver,s Masters degree research. (2016)
- The EARS Project provided data for X. Zhang. WATCH: Enabling Wifi in Active TV Channels, Ph.D. degree research. (2017)
- During the summer of 2017, Robby Flechas (REU participant) and Xintong Liu, undergraduate students at Rice University will work closely with the PI’s and graduate students in the Rice Networks Lab designing, developing and testing a wireless THz backhaul related testbed.